Katherine Lieberknecht is an assistant professor in the School of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin. She researches urban water resources planning, metropolitan-scaled green infrastructure planning, and urban climate planning. Dr. Lieberknecht teaches courses on sustainable land use planning, water resources planning, and urban ecology. Prior to joining the faculty, she worked in regional land conservation. She received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from the College of William and Mary, a Master in Environmental Management from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University.

Dr. Lieberknecht was the inaugural chair of Planet Texas 2050, The University of Texas at Austin's first grand challenge research program and continues to serve on its leadership team. She was the faculty lead for the Texas Metro Observatory, a Planet Texas 2050 research project and is co-lead for the Planet Texas 2050 Flagship Project Equitable and Regenerative Cities in a Post-Carbon Future. She serves as principal investigator for a National Science Foundation Smart and Connected Communities project located in Dove Springs, Austin, Texas. Katherine also serves as the lead for the Co-Design theme for the Department of Energy funded Southeast Texas Urban Integrated Field Laboratory. Other recent projects include contributing to a UT Austin-EcoRise collaboration funded through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and serving as a co-PI for the Mellon Foundation 2021 CHCI Global Humanities Institute on Climate Justice and Problems of Scale. She is a 2020-2022 UT Austin Humanities Institute Fellow, and she received UT Austin's School of Architecture's Outstanding Service Award in 2018-2019 and UT Austin's School of Architecture's Outstanding Teacher (Lecture) in 2020-2021